by Dr. Sandra Gilgan
At the end of May this year, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks as a guest at St Andrews University, a strategic partner of the University of Bonn, with the generous financial support of the EU’s Erasmus+ programme. In early 2021, the university wide sustainability network STACEES (St Andrews Network for Climate, Energy, Environment and Sustainability) was established there with the aim to foster cohesion and capacity in environmental sustainability research at St Andrews and increase its impact and visibility. The vision of the network is to build comprehensive and enduring research capacity that places the University at the center of international conversations on climate change, energy research, and environmental sustainability. In this way, STACEES has similar concerns to the Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research, which was founded in 2017 with the goal of strengthening knowledge and skills for sustainable development among six established Bonn institutions.
The stay in St Andrews served an intensive exchange of experiences with the STACEES coordinators Dr. Sarah Bennison and Laura Pels Ferra, in which we talked about the work in the coordination of an (institutional) research network. We had the opportunity to get to know each other’s working methods and formats and to find out how we can be useful to each other as a network coordination offices. For example, STACEES produced a publication on the occasion of the network’s launch for more visibility of sustainability research at St Andrews University that was produced in collaboration with artists and professional writers, The Sustainability Series: a collection of 15 articles from researchers at all career levels, from PhD students to professors, has come together; it presents multidisciplinary sustainability research that addresses climate inequality, environmental sciences, humanities, ecosystems, biodiversity, energy, sustainable technologies, and climate change. Professional writers were hired to rewrite the researchers project summaries in a lively and accessible way. An artist created a cover image for each research topic covered in the series.
I also met several sustainability-related scientists at St Andrews University. Under the title “Connecting with Bonn: Sustainability Research & Cooperation,” I presented the work of the Bonn Alliance to scientists, students, PhD students, and colleagues from science-supporting fields on May 30, 2022. A colleague from the St Andrews Global Office also presented the funding instrument of the Bonn-St Andrews Collaborative Research Grants, which can be used to establish and manifest collaborations between the universities Bonn and St Andrews. This was followed by a reception with a vegan-vegetarian buffet generously financed by the Global Office. I was able to deepen some of the contacts from this event on May 31 at the School of Geography and Sustainable Development’s Staff Conference Day, to which the School’s leaders invited me on the recommendation of a colleague. This incredible hospitality made it possible for me to gain insight into the research of 35 colleagues, and moreover into interdisciplinary collaboration. – for which perspectives and methods are combined, complemented or formed to new approaches.
One project that I found particularly inspiring is the transdisciplinary project “El Niño. Fenómeno de Oportunidades” (cooperation between UK and Peru). Here, floods following heavy rainfall in Peru are studied in terms of their potential, combining climate research with intangible cultural heritage research; agricultural and fisheries systems are considered from an interdisciplinary perspective, incorporating (handed down/historical) local knowledge. In addition, local communities are involved in the research, educational projects, and results/outputs of the project. The teams from Peru and the UK also designed a museum exhibition in their respective localities; the St. Andrews team’s exhibition, entitled “When it rains, we harvest”, is on display at the Fisheries Museum in Anstruther (near St. Andrews). There is a virtual tour of the exhibition: A Guided Virtual Tour of “When It Rains, We Harvest” – When It Rains, We Harvest: Cuando Llueve, Cosechamos (st-andrews.ac.uk) Many thanks to the STACEES team and the colleagues in St Andrews for a wonderful stay and to the colleagues at the International Office of the University of Bonn for making the exchange possible! If you would like to know more or have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Contact:
Dr. Sandra Gilgan
s.gilgan@uni-bonn.de
